March 30, 2009 (CAP Newswire) — Companies that rely on high-profile gambling company 888 to provide services such as software, customer support, and payment processing for its online gaming will soon be dealing with a separate brand to handle those services.
According to a report in today’s London Telegraph, 888 will be re-branding the business-to-business services it offers clients — those that don’t fall within the category of its online gaming platforms. The company told the Telegraph that this is being done to address the concerns of clients who don’t want to include the “rival 888 brand” on their websites.
These services will soon fall under a new brand, to be called “Dragonfish”.
According to the Telegraph, 888 has 19 business-to-business clients who rely on 888 for these services, including Sportech and Foxy Bingo. Yahoo’s Financial pages speculated that this move coincides with efforts by 888 to expand this client base, with 888 currently in talks with “over 50 potential strategic partners”.
888’s CEO, Gigi Levy, explained the new name to the Telegraph: "We looked at combinations of 'play' and 'tech' and other things but they were either boring or taken, so we came up with Dragonfish. It's an ugly fish but in places like China it's considered lucky."
He also explained the future strategy behind the branding, and the efforts to snag more B2B clients. "This generates extra revenue," he said. "If we were only B2C [business-to-consumer], I would be concerned. People are spending less."
The new division will be headed by Gabi Campos, according to the Telegraph.
Click here to read Alistair Osborne’s original article at the Telegraph. The Yahoo Financial article can be found here.